Topic: Microtrack 24/96 Firmware 1.4.0

[dmaster]

I guess I'll be trying this out tonight, hope all goes well (although honestly i haven't had any significant issues so far...).

But this does remind me... does anyone know if there are any plans to re-work the battery indicator to "make some sense"? I absolutely hate the diagonal line readout for how much battery life is left and wish they'd change it to just a solid bar like every other professional and semi-pro audio/video gear I've ever used. 

[jtessier]

Installed it, will use it tonight.
At 48/16, it reports max time per file as 2:53:36!? (should be over 3 hours!)

That's the time you get when you base your calculations on kilobytes, megabytes and Gigabytes all being 1000 instead of 1024 so that must be what's happening.

If that's true then it is a joke!
How can a programmer use 1000*1000*1000 byte GB's instead of 1024*1024*1024!? 
Is the software development outsourced as well?
I guess the hope for a seamless 2GB file switch (whatever 2GB it is..) can be abandoned?

I hope enough reports of this bug will come in. We need all of the real 2GB (the WAV format's limit) we can get. Not some stupid implementation that says less than 3 hours.
How can a non-US user make this clear to M-Audio without going through a local distributor?

It's true but is an extra 8 minutes and 26 seconds really that big a deal?  Sure I'd like the 'extra' time too since it should be possible but I'm just happy that there were a bunch of bugs fixed.

For those that care, I cruched the numbers and here are the wav file record time for every bit depth, sample rate and mono and stereo configuraiton.  Along with how much more time we'd get if it used 1024 as the basis for it's calculations.

                              1000      1024     difference
44100 / 16 / mono   6:17:56   6:36:17   0:18:21
44100 / 24 / mono   4:11:57   4:24:11   0:12:14
48000 / 16 / mono   5:47:13   6:04:05   0:16:52
48000 / 24 / mono   3:51:29   4:02:44   0:11:15
82000 / 16 / mono   3:08:58   3:18:09   0:09:11
82000 / 24 / mono   2:05:59   2:12:06   0:06:07
96000 / 16 / mono   2:53:37   3:02:03   0:08:26
96000 / 24 / mono   1:55:44   2:01:22   0:05:37
         
44100 / 16 / stereo   3:08:58   3:18:09   0:09:11
44100 / 24 / stereo   2:05:59   2:12:06   0:06:07
48000 / 16 / stereo   2:53:37   3:02:03   0:08:26
48000 / 24 / stereo   1:55:44   2:01:22   0:05:37
82000 / 16 / stereo   1:34:29   1:39:04   0:04:35
82000 / 24 / stereo   1:02:59   1:06:03   0:03:04
96000 / 16 / stereo   1:26:48   1:31:01   0:04:13
96000 / 24 / stereo   0:57:52   1:00:41   0:02:49

It's a difference of 4.85% more recording time per file. Again sure I wish I had it too just in case but I'm not overly bummed about it.

J.T.

[BC]

I was having problems with the channel swapping thing in all versions of the firmware before 1.4.0. i forgot to check before formatting my card after the tests i just did, but the channels were not swapped while i was monitoring the level meters. could you tell the channels were swapped while monitoring in older versions, or did you have to actuallly open the file on the pc to find out whether or not the channels got swapped?

I toggle the 48V phantom on the left channel off and back on while recording either before or after the set, you can see on the level meters on the MT if the correct channel is responding.

[udovdh]

Installed it, will use it tonight.
At 48/16, it reports max time per file as 2:53:36!? (should be over 3 hours!)

That's the time you get when you base your calculations on kilobytes, megabytes and Gigabytes all being 1000 instead of 1024 so that must be what's happening.

If that's true then it is a joke!
How can a programmer use 1000*1000*1000 byte GB's instead of 1024*1024*1024!? 
Is the software development outsourced as well?
I guess the hope for a seamless 2GB file switch (whatever 2GB it is..) can be abandoned?

I hope enough reports of this bug will come in. We need all of the real 2GB (the WAV format's limit) we can get. Not some stupid implementation that says less than 3 hours.
How can a non-US user make this clear to M-Audio without going through a local distributor?

It's true but is an extra 8 minutes and 26 seconds really that big a deal? 

8 min 26?
Rather 13 minutes.

Sure I'd like the 'extra' time too since it should be possible but I'm just happy that there were a bunch of bugs fixed.

This is a bug that is easily fixed.

48000 / 16 / stereo   2:53:37   3:02:03   0:08:26

I get to 3h06 for 48/16: 2*1024*1024*1024/(48000*2*2*3600) hours
Based on that it is 13 minutes or so.
That is 7.7+%

Somethign to be bummed about because I hate breaks in my audio.
There is no seamless autosplit and now this bug...

[udovdh]

(2*1024*1024*1024)/2000000000 gives the same 1.07...

[Ed.]

I suppose that the battery "sucks" (no pun intended) if you are powering the microphones from the MT.

The neumanns get powered by the v3, in fact, i haven't even used the analog ins on mt.  I also hook up a usb batt box to the MT and by the end of the night, the battery is still over half way depleted.  And thats at shutting it off between bands and setbreaks.

[JoeKiller]

Installed it, will use it tonight.
At 48/16, it reports max time per file as 2:53:36!? (should be over 3 hours!)

That's the time you get when you base your calculations on kilobytes, megabytes and Gigabytes all being 1000 instead of 1024 so that must be what's happening.

If that's true then it is a joke!
How can a programmer use 1000*1000*1000 byte GB's instead of 1024*1024*1024!? 
Is the software development outsourced as well?
I guess the hope for a seamless 2GB file switch (whatever 2GB it is..) can be abandoned?

I hope enough reports of this bug will come in. We need all of the real 2GB (the WAV format's limit) we can get. Not some stupid implementation that says less than 3 hours.
How can a non-US user make this clear to M-Audio without going through a local distributor?

It's true but is an extra 8 minutes and 26 seconds really that big a deal? 

8 min 26?
Rather 13 minutes.

Sure I'd like the 'extra' time too since it should be possible but I'm just happy that there were a bunch of bugs fixed.

This is a bug that is easily fixed.

48000 / 16 / stereo   2:53:37   3:02:03   0:08:26

I get to 3h06 for 48/16: 2*1024*1024*1024/(48000*2*2*3600) hours
Based on that it is 13 minutes or so.
That is 7.7+%

Somethign to be bummed about because I hate breaks in my audio.
There is no seamless autosplit and now this bug...

deep ass quote, anyway..

It really could be that they use some of the extra space for buffering and that sort...

[jtessier]

8 min 26?
Rather 13 minutes.

Yep sorry about that. I was wrong, or at least my math was. Although I had switched to 1024 units I had forgotten to take into account that in addition to using a different calcuation, it would also keep going after reaching 2000 going to 2048 Megabte instead.  My bad.  It still doesn't bother me but yes I'd think they could fix it if they are made aware of it loudly enough. 

I would also assume, as someone else suggested, that they probably leave a bit of extra room as a 'safety' net but they shouldn't need that much.

Again, sorry about my screwed up math.

J.T.

[udovdh]

8 min 26?
Rather 13 minutes.

Yep sorry about that. I was wrong, or at least my math was.

No problem. I got an email from M-Audio, so at least someone is aware of this 2GB issue. They are looking at fixing it in a future firmware release. (of course vague as can be...)

[rdvdijk]

8 min 26?
Rather 13 minutes.

Yep sorry about that. I was wrong, or at least my math was.

No problem. I got an email from M-Audio, so at least someone is aware of this 2GB issue. They are looking at fixing it in a future firmware release. (of course vague as can be...)

No sane programmer would use 1000 in stead of 1024. However, sales-people would. In the hard-disk and 'media'-storage world, disks and cards are often labeled with 'GB' which are actually 1000*1000*1000 bytes. This means slightly less bytes on a disk, so a physically slightly smaller hard disk (or less dense 'plate'), so less costs for the manufacturer.

I assumed the MT firmware programmers simplly used '1000' to stay closer to what the your media actually is, in stead of how it's been labelled.

So either:

1. The MT uses '1000': customers complain to M-Audio that the files could be bigger, hence recordings could be a bit longer before it hits the maximum of 2GB.
2. The MT uses '1024': customers complain to M-Audio that their '4GB' card can't hold two 2GB files. (or ideally they complain to the card-manufacturer)

Roel

[jtessier]

So either:

1. The MT uses '1000': customers complain to M-Audio that the files could be bigger, hence recordings could be a bit longer before it hits the maximum of 2GB.
2. The MT uses '1024': customers complain to M-Audio that their '4GB' card can't hold two 2GB files. (or ideally they complain to the card-manufacturer)

Roel

Good point. I'm also worried that if they fill up the media too full, ithe bug where it was sometimes failing to properly save the files when the media was full will come back. I'll gladly take a 15 minutes shorter record time over risking losing my entire recording session.  But hopefully they'll be careful about 'fixing' this one when and if they get around to it. With so many fixes in this one and the length of time it took to come out, I kind of get the feeling that this may have been kind of a 'wrap up' release and we might not see another for awhile barring something catastrophic, but that's just my gut, it's been wrong before.

BTW, I went back out of curiosity to the first firmware and it looks like this bug has been there all along.

J.T.

[gmm6797]

Was just trying to "bit bucket" a DAT from 2001, when he deck refused to start when the DAT started.

Any way, all of a sudden, the back-light was staying on and none of the buttons work.  The HOLD is not on, and the unit is locked up.

How can I get out of this?  Is there a key press combo or something to force a reboot/cold start?

Using 1.4.0... thanks, Greg

[udovdh]

Was just trying to "bit bucket" a DAT from 2001, when he deck refused to start when the DAT started.

Any way, all of a sudden, the back-light was staying on and none of the buttons work.  The HOLD is not on, and the unit is locked up.

How can I get out of this?  Is there a key press combo or something to force a reboot/cold start?

Using 1.4.0... thanks, Greg

Digi connection?
Make sure it is active (with signal) before starting the MT.
Hold down the power button a few seconds to power down.

[gmm6797]

Dig connection?
Make sure it is active (with signal) before starting the MT.
Hold down the power button a few seconds to power down.

Yes, DIG connection
Signal, as in source device on? or on and sending audio?
Power button (and all of them) did nothing, had to wait for the battery to die and then plug in power again.

[jtessier]

Dig connection?
Make sure it is active (with signal) before starting the MT.
Hold down the power button a few seconds to power down.

Yes, DIG connection
Signal, as in source device on? or on and sending audio?
Power button (and all of them) did nothing, had to wait for the battery to die and then plug in power again.

You have to hold the power button down for about 12 seconds continuously  or longer to get it to force power off. This has always worked for me when I eneded up with a frozon unit for any reason.